


Moon Drunk

by Dxlilith



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Infidelity, M/M, Mutual Pining, References to Teen Wolf films from the 80s, Supernatural Elements, blood and gore but not gratuitous, lycanthropy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:46:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27371398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dxlilith/pseuds/Dxlilith
Summary: moon drunk monsterbeautiful and strangehowl your melancholy questionand tell mewhich you dread morethe echo or the answer
Relationships: Christy Neal/Link Neal, Jessie McLaughlin/Rhett McLaughlin, Rhett McLaughlin/Link Neal
Comments: 13
Kudos: 35





	1. "Man, where the heck are we?"

**Author's Note:**

> General Disclaimer: The people featured in this story are real but this story is fictional. It’s meant for entertainment purposes for those of us that enjoy this sort of thing. Not meant to be taken as desired or believed real life events. Just so that we’re clear.

“Man, where the heck are we?”

When no answer comes, Link stops moving only to have his traveling companion collide into his back.

“Dude.”

“ _Dude_.” Link echoes but with his patience wrought thin, it comes off as more of a hiss.

“I told you, we’re on the scenic...”

“Just admit that we’re lost Rhett!” Link shouts, effectively cutting off the taller man. He readjusts his glasses and pulls the straps of his backpack but refuses to break eye contact. “The sooner you do, the sooner I can freak out and then we can figure something out.” 

“Okay.”

“Okay what?”

“Okay, we _may_ have made a wrong turn.”

“ _Rhett_.” Link puts all the emphasis on the last letter.

“We’re not lost!” Rhett approaches Link to show him the map he’s been clutching for the last hour. “We’re still within the forest limits and the summit is still due south, we’re just not on the right trail.”

“Then let’s turn around and go the way we came.”

“Well...”

“What?”

“Sunset’s in an hour. At this point we’re probably closer to the cabin than the correct trail start."

“So what you're saying is...”

“We keep heading east. We’ll either hit the river or the cabin, either one we can camp out for the night instead of being stuck walking in the dark.” Rhett's bottom lip disappears as he bites it, waiting for Link to respond. 

Link simply nods his head and starts to walk ahead. Rhett takes two long strides and walks alongside him. They don't talk for a good while, neither wanting to break the tense silence between them. This trip, like many events in Link's life, was Rhett's idea. He said they needed some time away, just the two of them, no phones or schedules or kids or wives. Just Rhett and Link and the woods so that they could recharge their creative juices and pump out some really great content to bring to the new season of GMM. It had been incredibly appealing at the time of inception.

An hour comes and goes and with it, sunset. The sky blossoms into burnt oranges and reds and slowly fades into purples and dark blues until it's nightfall. Link can just barely make out the cabin they had left that morning. “Well Rhett, you were..."

“ _Link_.”

Rhett James McLaughlin has been Link’s best friend since he was six and he could count on one hand the number of times Rhett has said his name with as much fear in it as he just did. Link turns back to find Rhett standing stock still and staring out into the distance west of them. “Rhett wha...” he’s cut off by Rhett’s sweat-damp hand clawing at his fingers and grappling his wrist in a crushing hold.

“ _Shut. Up.”_ Rhett’s head turns just enough to make eye contact with Link. In the faint light of the slowly emerging moon and stars, his hazel eyes bulge. Knowing he should remain silent, Link searches for what could be scaring Rhett, hoping it was simply a prank because his heart was already beating loudly in his ears.

In the distance, just beyond a line of trees, there is a large shadow. At first Link assumes it’s shrubbery, something _meant_ to be in the woods. Staring into the darkness longer he sees that is too specific. Too large to just be a part of the scenery but rather _in_ the scenery. That's when he catches the two eyes staring back at him.

“Is that a bear?” He whispers. 

Rhett shakes his head slowly, neither of them able to look away. “Issawoff.” He mumbles. In any other situation, Link would have laughed at the thick southern accent that's tumbled out but as is, he was too scared to even breathe correctly.

“What are we gonna do?”

“On my count, we make a run for the cabin. That thing's gonna be fast so we gotta be faster.” Link nods his head because honestly what were their options. Hope whatever the hell was lurking out there and staring them down would just turn around? “One, two, _three!”_

The ground beneath the men's feet shifts in a flurry of dirt and rocks as they turn towards the cabin and haul ass. Rhett refusing to let go of Link but objectively covering more ground with legs as long as his, practically drags Link. There’s a howl that pierces the night air and rips through either man’s hearing. It halts Link’s entire body, allowing for Rhett’s grip around his wrist to slip as he continues towards the cabin. Only for a few feet before turning back to grab Link by the shoulders. Link can see the fear in his best friend’s eyes but can _feel_ the immense heat from behind him. How could it have gotten so close to them so quickly he thinks.

“Link!” His name is being screeched as his body is being shoved. His senses are all firing at him at once but the heat is gone because Rhett's directly behind him now and using both of his hands to push him closer and closer towards the cabin door. There's a noise that mixes in with their heavy breathing. A growling, menacing sound that instinctively equates to death in Link's lizard brain but still he turns to look.

There beyond Rhett's head is a great and gaping maw. Spit-slick and sharp, its teeth are the size of kitchen knives. Link is pushed harder, runs just a little faster as Rhett's screaming again. “Hurry Link!” 

All Link can do is keep running until he's ripping the door open and running into the cabin's main room. He trips on what he doesn't know but curses his clumsiness as he lands on all fours. Vomit, hot and acidic with the rancid taste of beef jerky, spews out of him from having stopped so abruptly. The adrenaline in his body is waning along with the retching and soon it's too quiet. He turns himself around but remains on the floor. The door is wide open but nothing is there.

“Rhett?” Link wipes at his mouth and adjusts his glasses.

There’s a thump, a loud enough sound that shakes him and the ground underneath. Then a scrape and drag of something large and unyielding until a shadow forms in the doorway. It blocks out the moonlight that should be coming in. This is the moment Link knows must be when he dies and wonders if he'll be joining Rhett or if he somehow managed to escape, sacrificing him instead.

“Don’t touch him!” It’s a roar. Guttural but familiar and the beast falls away from the entry in a blur of long human arms and legs. Link knows they can only belong to one man.

"Rhett!" He scrambles to his feet to run out. He searches in the direction he'd seen the bodies disappear but it was just that. They disappeared. There was no trace of either the beast nor Rhett. Link's heart plummets into his stomach when his eyes find Rhett's backpack, not even ten feet away and cut to ribbons. Its content spilled every which way.

Link knows he is hyperventilating. He can hear his breathing hitching and his hands clenching but he can't stop now. He walks out, looks left and right because where was Rhett? This wasn’t actually happening was it? This had to be a nightmare induced by poor digestion and stress!

"Link."

The aforementioned man turns around so quickly his head spins. Standing beside the cabin, obscured by the blur of tears in Link's eyes, is Rhett. His stance is awkward, legs spread apart, his one shoulder higher than the other as he clutches something to his chest. Link runs straight to him but stops when Rhett brings out his arm and Link sees that the thing he was clutching was a bloodied ax.

"What...what happened?" Link steels himself because he was not going to faint, he couldn't. Not now.

"It was gonna kill you, so I killed it first."

"It was gonna kill both of us!" Link finds himself overwhelmed by an array of emotions. The forerunners being relief and incredulity. "Just like you to take all the glory." 

Link takes the ax from Rhett and chucks it in the general direction of not them. Rhett flinches, closing his eyes and turning away to prepare for a punch that Link never throws. Instead he pushes his hands up against Rhett's chest to confirm the rise and fall of his breathing. Once he does, Link lays his head across the shoulder not currently covered in blood. In a voice still too scared to believe this was happening Link asks. "How hurt are you?"

"Not bad." He hears the lie in Rhett's voice. Link’s reminded of the fact that Rhett's has had back problems since they were teenagers and here they are in their early forties, lost in the woods and being chased by preternatural beasts. "I should, I should clean up. Most of this blood ain't mine."

"Thank God." Link whispers. He doesn't want to move. He's still doesn't think the creature is gone or that they're safe. They are both so far away from home and their families and technologies. Utterly alone in the dark of the woods.

"Hey, hey, hey, it's okay." Rhett's voice is gentle, his hands now on either one of Link's arms. "Let's, let's get inside an' clean up." His lips are pressed into his hairline, whispering more words to soothe the panic that now engulfs Link. He feels pathetic, nothing actually happened to him and here was Rhett, covered in gore, pacifying him and coddling him and when had they made it inside? "I'm right here Bo. Just relax." Rhett says, closing the door behind him. Link takes a moment to blink, adjust to the light inside the cabin. Other than the puddle of vomit, the place is untouched, adding a layer to the surrealism Link is experiencing. He turns around, a little more aware of everything. 

Rhett stills, understands he is caught in the light for Link to examine. Bringing to focus all the cuts and scrapes, the blood on his face and hair, his beard and splatters across his shirt. The same shirt with the shredded shoulder that the wolf managed to swipe before Rhett was able to dispatch it.

"Rhett, that looks..." Link reaches out but stops himself, feeling the floor tilting ever so slightly to the left.

"You should see the other guy." Rhett attempts to smile but with the color draining from Link's face, regrets it. "M'fine. It's just a scratch. I can wash it off and patch it up. Just give me..."

"Let me help." 

"Link, you're swayin' in place. I'd rather you just sit down."

"I'm not useless."

"Never said you were." Rhett offers a small smile. There's a redness around his eyes and a waxy color to the skin not covered in blood. Link wants to vomit again but knows there's nothing left inside him. He nods his head and walks over to the small sofa, taking a seat on the arm. He nods his head as a silent dismissal that lets Rhett know he can leave the room.

* * *

Rhett heads for the bathroom and immediately turns on the shower to the hottest it will go and proceeds to vomit into the toilet. Unlike Link, it's more of a silent upheaval of bile with no retching, just expelling. It lasts less than a minute and he flushes it down without thinking about the blood mingling in it. 

_The wolf is massive. On its four legs, its eyes meet Rhett's head on. Two, white hot embers with hardly a distinction between sclera and iris. Its fur is the color of untouched coals and it smells of wet leaves and decay. It's enough to make him gag. It's pacing in front of him, sizing him up. It's already manage to catch him the shoulder, the searing jolts of pain running up and down his side were not enough to distract him however. He has to keep this thing away from Link._

Rhett kicks his boots right off. He undoes his belt and pants and removes them along with his underwear. It's his shirt that takes a little time. It's stuck to his skin by the drying blood. A fire runs through him as he lifts his arm up. He clenches his jaw, letting all the air in his lungs out through his nose. He doesn't want to look in the mirror. A part of him wanting to follow film logic of if you cannot see the wound, you don't have to deal with it. But he has to.

Just before his collar bone, four jagged lines run up and over his right shoulder. They're deep enough to see bone, the flesh around it little ruffles of red and pink. He turns, keeping his eyes in the mirror to follow the lines that end somewhere in the middle of his back. He counts to ten and walks into the shower. He closes his eyes against the sting of water and bites the inside of his cheek to keep from crying out.

_There's an axe nestled against a tree stump. It’s for cutting up firewood but as good a weapon as any. He surges forward, arms outstretched to wrap his hands around the wooden handle and succeeds in doing so just as all the air in his lungs leaves him. The wolf is on top him, the back of his head fully exposed to its deadly maw. It howls a piercing cry and Rhett disregards all protests in his body to turn in place, swinging with the ax._

_He doesn’t know what is louder, the wailing of the beast or the sound of an ax tearing through its flesh. It's harder than he ever imagined, pushing through fur and muscle and maybe bone. He doesn't know how deep just that he has to ensure it works._

Rhett turns the water off and stands in the shower for a moment, willing his mind to go blank. He was alive. Link was alive. Everything was going to be alright.

* * *

“Hey." 

While Rhett was showering, Link took it upon himself to clean. He went through the small pantry in the cabin’s kitchen and found a mop and other supplies. He wiped away any evidence of his vomit first. Then he finished the dishes they’d left in the sink from breakfast that morning. Then proceeded to wipe any surface that was remotely dusty. Anything to help soothe the shaking in his hands. He'd just thrown in the last bit of kindling into the fireplace when Rhett walked into the hall. 

“Hey yourself.” 

Rhett’s dressed in a grey henley and dark blue pajama bottoms. His curly hair weighted down by its recent washing, surrounding his face and beard in a way that takes years off. The last dredges of Link’s anxiety slip away at the sight.

"I think we should leave in the morning. I'm too tired to drive and I don't want you driving either."

"Yeah, okay." Link doesn’t want to argue. He wants to forget everything that’s happened in at least the last three hours. “How’s your shoulder?” 

“Just fine.” Rhett reaches up to tug at his shirt, revealing freshly placed bandages, pristine and white.

“Oh. That’s good.” Link says for lack of anything better. 

"Are you okay?" Rhett asks.

“Well, I’m not the one who went toe to toe with a frickin' wolf.”

“Yeah, he’d have kicked your ass.”

“Yeah, he would’ve.” Link agrees with no hint of humor in his voice. 

The two men stand in the hall staring at one another. The air between them tense. Both searching for something to say. Ultimately, Link chooses to slip his arms through Rhett’s and bury his face into Rhett's good shoulder. It takes the taller man by surprise but his arms fall around Link’s shoulders.

“Never do that again.” Link mumbles into Rhett’s shirt.

“Fight a wolf?”

“Almost die.” There’s a crack in Link’s voice.

“Never again, Bo.”

They stay like this for a while. In each other’s arms, silently reassuring themselves that the other was fine.

"We should probably go to bed, get some rest an' all that." Rhett mumbles. He feels Link nod his head and slowly pulls away.

"Yeah. Okay." But Link doesn't move.

"You, ah, you want...ahem." Rhett clears his throat. It shouldn't be this hard he thinks. "You wanna bunk with me? I'm a little..."

"Yes." Link says so quickly even he looks surprised. "Yes but, uh, nothin’ funny." 

"Says the octopus cuddler." Rhett smiles,

He leads them both to the end of the hall to his room. It was the smaller than Link’s with only one window but it felt a million times more inviting now that Link would be there too.

They won't tell anyone, not even their wives. They decide this as they lay in the dark, in the same bed, shoulder to shoulder, under the same blanket.

"I'm still scared." Link says quietly, staring up at the ceiling without his glasses on. The moonlight is bright enough to light up his features and Rhett is reminded of nine year old Link huddled up in a tent, afraid of the noises outside.

"Me too." He shifts closer, pressing his arm against Link's.

"I'm gonna hold your hand because I need comfort and I'm not ashamed to admit it."

Rhett's face hurts from the smile that breaks across it as shaky, cold fingers slip into his hand. "Okay."

They leave early in the morning, before sunrise. They shove everything haphazardly into the rental and catch a movie about the migration of whales to kill time before they’re expected home. It helps that when Rhett wakes up with Link wrapped around him in a tangle of limbs, his shoulder feels just fine. It helps even more when a look in the mirror reveals a completely healed scar of four thin lines.


	2. Am I A Woff?

It starts off small. Little annoyances here and there that only Rhett notices at first. Like the extra hair clogging his shower drain that’s not Jessie’s. Or the rapid rate his fingernails seem to be growing. So much so that he starts carrying a nail clipper on his keychain to keep them in check. Then there are the changes his wife points out.

One morning, with bleary eyes and a frown, she tells him that he spent the night kicking in his sleep. Almost kicking her completely off the bed at one point. They chalk it up to bad indigestion and stress. For the first few nights. After a week of it however, Jessie banishes him to sleep in the guest bedroom. Rhett sneaks in the first night and sleeps as close to the edge of the bed without falling.

His kids point out his increased appetite.

“Dad! Did you eat the whole pizza!?” Shepherd’s voice is shrill with disbelief, holding onto the now empty pizza tray.

“I’m a growing manboy!” Rhett pats his stomach affectionately.

“Dad, it’s your third one. Leave us some or I’m gonna have to call child services.” Locke says, not even looking up from his cellphone.

“I’m gonna have to side with the teenager babe. I watched ya eat half a chicken not twenty minutes ago. What kind of black hole have you opened up inside ya?” There’s a smile on her face but Rhett can hear the slight concern.

He explains he’s just hungrier from his new and intense workout routine. He’d gotten more gun-ho at the gym, pushing himself harder and harder than ever. Incorporating more weights and lifts because his back no longer pained him. At least not enough for him to stop. That was the other thing he noticed. Or rather, Link noticed for him. 

“Dang man, you made me look so bad.”

“What? You won!”

“No, I’m talking about that twelve-pack you just had to show off.”

Link throws a shirt at Rhett. They’d just wrapped on an episode on how to escape different types of bindings. Link won by being able to wiggle free no matter the material and Rhett succeeded in tearing his shirt to shreds in the last round.

“Oh. You jealous? I told you my gym is way better.” Rhett doesn’t put on the shirt. He throws it off to the side and rubs a hand down his abdomen while making direct eye contact with Link. He watches as blue eyes follow the movement and can’t help but smirk.

“You wish brother.” Link chuckles nervously.

Feeling daring, Rhett takes the three short steps it takes to crowd Link up against the GMM desk. “We could train together.”

“You’d only make fun of my form and get all panicky when I get to the weights.”

“That’s because I worry about you hurting yourself.” Rhett’s voice is just above a whisper but he’s so close he might as well be shouting in Link’s ear. 

“I’m a grown man.” Link scoffs.

“Prove it.” Rhett pushes in and Link’s backside meets the edge of the desk.

“Uh, you guys ready to start the More?” Morgan’s voice cuts between them. The two men step away from each other and Rhett puts on a shirt. It’s a little snug and a little short but Link's less-than-subtle staring keeps him from finding another one. 

That was Monday.

* * *

“Are you wearing a new cologne?” 

“No. I think I actually forgot to put on deodorant now that you mention it.” Link lifts an arm to sniff under his arm. “Sorry brother, you’re gonna have to deal with my BO till the first break.” Link turns back to Rhett who is much closer than he expected, their noses bumping. “Dude.” Link scoots back with his chair to create distance.

“You smell good.” Rhett closes his eyes and does a deep inhale.

“Oh...kay?” Link wonders when the joke is suppose to land but Rhett says nothing else, as he slowly opens his eyes and stares at Link. He swears it’s a trick of studio lighting but Rhett’s eyes glow white before Stevie is calling places.

On Wednesday, Rhett spends the entire morning hearing strange noises until he finally finds an old radio in Davin’s desk at the other side of the building. He smashes it to smithereens when he does. Only Link and Davin witness this and neither man says anything. Both chalk it up to having a bad day. Davin doesn’t even remember having the radio in the first place.

By Friday, Rhett knows something is actually wrong with him.

“Killer prosthetics. We doin’ a Halloween bit this early in the year?”

“What?”

“Your teeth man. They’re fang-ier. I’d say vampire but there’s too many of 'em. Looks way better than those wolfman ones you had before.”

“Wha...” but Rhett pauses, feeling the strangeness in his mouth. He runs his tongue over his incisors and feels the new jaggedness. Link is watching him with a curious expression. “Be right back.”

He rushes to the bathroom, locking the door behind him and faces his reflection. Protruding from his mouth and peeking through his beard are two large canines. He pushes his lip up to reveal the rest of his mouth. Sharp, thicker, longer than they should be teeth now line his entire mouth. He sticks his tongue out and it too is longer.

He closes his mouth, drops his hands, and looks away from the mirror. His heart is pounding and the sounds of his rapid breathing fill the small room.

“I must be dreamin’. Next I’ll be growing fur and claws, joinin’ the school’s basketball team.” He laughs a little at his own joke but doesn’t turn back to look in the mirror. He checks his hands, noticing his nails are opaque, no longer showing the pink of skin underneath.

“Hey Rhett, you in there? Stevie’s supposed to be calling places already.” Chase’s voice comes through the door. He’s further away, knocking on the bathroom next to the one Rhett’s in but looking for him nonetheless.

“Yeah! Had a five bean breakfast!”

“Ugh, just remember to spray before you leave!” He hears Chase’s voice fade as he walks away.

Rhett turns back to the mirror and smiles as wide as he can. He watches with acute fascination as his teeth grow smaller and flatter until his smile is once more barely visible behind his beard. "Is this really happening to me?” 

_Yes_.

Rhett’s heart explodes in his chest. The answer came from his own reflection only it was a woman’s voice that fell from his lips. He looks on in shock as his reflection's eyes glow white as it smiles back him. That’s the moment he decides to run out and ignore everything that’s happened in the last five minutes.

Rhett spends the next two days simply denying everything he sees or feels or even hears. Then he rips the door to his garage clean off its hinges and into the neighbor’s yard. He’d only meant to lift it manually as the automator was stuck. Thankfully his family and neighbors were not present so he was able to run over and get it back and attached before anyone noticed. All the while, a woman’s voice laughed inside his head


	3. The Howling

It’s almost six pm when he really starts to feel it. The mass of nerves twitching just underneath his skin, stretching and twisting until he has to move from one end of the office to the other pretending to text someone when in fact he’s simply fighting back the urge to scream.

“What’s up with you? You’ve been weird all day.” Link’s voice pulls him back into the present moment.

“Nothin’.” He goes back to his desk, grabbing his keys and shutting off his laptop. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Hey.”

Rhett’s almost at the door when Link’s hand wraps around his forearm. “Seriously man, what’s going on? You’re not normally this jittery. Did...did something happen at home? Is it the boys? Jessie?”

“Fine, fine, everyone’s fine I’m just...” but Rhett can’t find the words he thinks he should be saying aloud. Only words like _full moon_ and _transform_ and _tonight_ keep cropping up.

“Just what?” Blue eyes look up at him and Rhett can't think of a single thing he's ever kept from Link.

“Remember what happened a month ago?”

“Uh...” Link lets go of him and looks away to try and remember. “We did that video about...”

“The night at the cabin.”

“Oh.”

“It wasn’t just any old wolf Link.”

“Yeah, I know. That thing was massive, must’ve been one of those breeds that live too deep in the woods to have been tampered with...”

“What do Micheal J Fox, Warren Zevon, and Eddie Munster all have in common?”

“What do...what?”

“Teen Wolf, Werewolves of London, and Eddie Munster was a...”

“Werewolf. You think that wolf was some sort of werewolf? C’mon man, stop pullin’ my leg an’ talk to your therapist about the attack if you need help processing it.” Link sucks his teeth and walks away.

“I can’t explain it but my gut is telling me tonight’s the night I find out what that wolf was and what it turned me into.”

“What it turned you... _you_ turned yourself into a delirious mess. You’ve been watchin’ too many crappy horror films again. Go home and get some sleep.” Link waves Rhett off, heading back to his desk to finish up the email he’d been working on.

“Don’t act like you haven’t noticed all the weird things I’ve been doin' lately. The sniffin' an’ hearin’ shit. Or how shredded I’ve become! Been doin’ yoga an’ pilates for years an' suddenly I can bench press three fifty without my back screaming at me?! Link I haven’t had any back pain _in weeks!_ ”

Link pauses, turning around to look Rhett in the eye. “You want me to believe you’re gonna turn into a fictional creature?”

“Maybe. I won’t know until tonight.” Rhett’s jaw is set and his eyes are burning into Link. Rhett makes this face on GMM for comedic effect when he’s pretending to be serious about some conspiracy but Link knows this time it’s real. There’s too much determination and fear mingling. Not to mention the clenching and unclenching of his fists.

“You stayin’ at the creative house then?”

“Yeah. I don’t know what’s gonna happen, figured I should be around less people.”

“Do you want me to stay away too?” Link’s voice is quiet, small for once.

“No.” Rhett almost shouts. “I mean, if you don’t have other plans, you could come with and be there to mock me all you want when I don’t transform into a blood-thirsty monster.”

“Or get eaten when you do?”

* * *

They tell their wives it’s for work. Jessie is relieved, Rhett won’t stop kicking in his sleep so maybe tonight she’ll get a full night’s rest. Christy is fine, she knows it always gets real busy around this time of year and would rather have Rhett deal with a stressed out Link than herself. They grab dinner and actually work on a few ideas before Rhett becomes so anxious he stops being able to understand the words to his favorite Merle album.

“Let’s go for a swim.” Link suggests after the fourth time of trying to get Rhett’s attention. The taller man only nods his head and both search the house for board shorts left from a previous surfing trip.

The moon is out, big and bright against the hazy Los Angeles sky. Underneath it are two life long friends, sitting side by side with their legs in the pool of their creative house.

“There are whole cultures that worshipped them like Gods on earth! There has to be at least a tiny kernel of truth!” Rhett emphasises by squeezing his index finger and thumb as close as possible without touching. He’s spent the thirty minutes rehashing all the research he’d done on werewolves to Link.

“But I guess you’re not actually a werewolf yourself.” Link leans into Rhett’s shoulder, giving it a playful nudge as he points up at the full moon.

“I guess I’m not.” Rhett smiles, shoving back a little harder.

“Hey.” Link laughs, catching himself before falling into the pool. “Some guys buy sports cars and date women young enough to be their daughters.”

“Not me. I decide I’m turning into The Big Bad Wolf.” Rhett makes a face meant to be menacing but the crossing of his eyes makes it silly. 

“Classic Rhett.” Link grins. “Maybe, just maybe, it’s like a hormone thing? You hit forty and suddenly your body is going through second puberty?”

“Wow, that’s....second puberty?” Rhett is laughing, shaking his head.

“Hey, I’m tryna be logical here unlike some people.” Link smiles, turning away from Rhett. He removes his shirt and folds it neatly beside him. “I’m gonna go in.” He takes off his glasses and sets them on top of the shirt and looks back at Rhett. “C’mon.” He says as he slides himself into the water.

Link swims a few feet away and turns back to face Rhett. Without his glasses and very little light, it’s hard to make out the expression of his best friend’s face. “The water’s nice an’ warm an’ it’s not b’cause I peed in it!” He calls out before diving in and swimming in earnest. He goes around the pool twice before resurfacing closer to where he’d left Rhett but there’s no one there. 

“Rhett?”

“ _Link_.” 

The desperation in the voice makes Link turn quickly in the water. Standing off to the side and closer to the fence that surrounds the yard is Rhett. He’s doubled over, clutching his knees with both hands. His eyes are buggy and his teeth gnashed as if he’d just been punched in the stomach. Link starts to swim over to him but he’s maybe two strokes in when Rhett drops on all four. For a fraction of a second, Link assumes this is a joke. Something meant to scare him and laugh about later. Then Rhett howls.

It’s a godawful cry that comes from somewhere deep inside his belly and rips through Rhett's body and out from of his mouth. It's a sound so piercing that Link covers his ears and turns away. It goes on and on, and on. Forever it seems until it stops as sudden as it started.

Link turns back but Rhett’s gone. He spins in place, searching for a familiar shape. “Rhett! Rhett where are you?!” Link hears his own voice break. He swims over to the nearest edge and pulls himself out of the water. The balmy night air hits his wet skin and he shivers. He heads for where his shirt and glasses are but stops midway there when he notices the sound of heavy breathing behind him.

Slowly, he turns. He is met with a drooling mass of sharp teeth and tongue, in a mouth big enough to swallow him in half. On all four legs, it’s taller than Link. It’s fur is a dark brown but in the rays of moonlight that catch, there are flecks of honey. There’s an overpowering scent of burning wood that emits from it and heat. _So much heat_. Link almost forgets that he’s shirtless and wet. It’s as beautiful as it is terrifying, all elongated lines and strokes of a painting come to life in the form of a large wolf. It huffs a hot breath over Link and makes him close his eyes against the sting.

_Link_.

He opens his eyes to see the beast’s head turn slightly to the side, not unlike his own dog Jade attempting to understand him. Two gray eyes stare back at him.

“Did you just say somethin’?” He gasps. "I must’ve hit my head so hard just now.” Link runs a hand through his wet hair, searching for the lump that isn't there. 

The wolf shakes its head, puffing out more hot air. It moves in and nudges Link’s bare shoulder, whining as it does. The touch should have made Link shit his pants but instead, his hand reaches up. Instinctively, he rubs the wolf’s face. “Oh hush, m’fine.” 

Link lets his head fall against the short fur and is pleasantly surprised by it's softness. “That really you in there Rhett?”

The wolf shifts, the scraping of its claws against the ground a staccato as it moves even closer to Link. It pushes its chest into him, catching him off guard. 

“What’re you doing?!” He yelps, feeling his knees give, forcing him to fall on his ass. “Hey, hey, hey, stop that!” Link shouts, starting to panic as more of the beast covers his body and forces him down onto the ground, his back perfectly aligning with the concrete. “Get off me!” He yelps, flailing his arms only to have them tuck under the wolf’s front legs as it fully sits down on top of him. Only his head remains free. 

“What’re you...” Link stops when the wolf lays its head down next to his and closes its eyes. It isn’t until it sticks its tongue out of its mouth that Link understands.

“You’re dead?!” Link exclaims happily. “Rhett ya jerk, you weigh a thousand times more right now!” Link squirms but finds it pretty useless. He wasn’t being crushed per say. He could still breathe and there was no impending squishing of organs but there was no moving until Rhett got off him. “I get it man, you’re a werewolf. Uncle! UNCLE!”

With a satisfied huff, Rhett jumps up on all four but doesn’t move away. Instead, he brings his face down so that his snout touches the tip of Link’s nose.

“Why you all up in my face?” But Link’s smiling, hands reaching up of their own volition to run his fingers along Rhett’s face as far up as he can go without sitting up. His eyes lock onto Rhett’s when his fingertips find themselves at either side of his jawline.

“You’re not gonna eat me, are ya?” He whispers the last part. He feels nothing but safe under the massive beast that Rhett has turned into. The question is perfunctory, meant to quell all the other thoughts racing through him like _what does this mean for our lives? Do we tell our families? What happens to our company if word got out that..._

A wet and rather large tongue licks the entirety of Link’s face.

“Eugh! Dude!” Link lets go of Rhett and turns away, crawling out from under him. He wipes at his face. “Gross!” 

He goes over to the edge of the pool and splashes water onto his face. When he’s done, he feels the immense heat that is Rhett beside him and looks up. “You’re more of a Dire Wolf than werewolf.”

Rhett huffs.

“Hey, just making an observation.” Link holds his hands up. “You’re huge...like as big as a pickup. Well, maybe smaller than....” Link isn’t able to finish the thought as Rhett pushes him into the water. By the time he orients himself and breaks the surface, Rhett as joined him and is swimming laps around him.

“Asshole!” Link yells but is laughing a second later.

An hour goes by, maybe two. They swim and splash. Even wrestle with Link somehow ending up on Rhett’s back. He’s clutching on for dear life as the wolf jumps from out the water and runs around the pool in maddening circles.

“Don’t get mad at me when I puke all over you!” Link shouts into the wet fur he’s hiding his face in. Rhett yelps and makes a sudden stop that has Link almost wringing Rhett’s neck to keep from flying off. “WOAH! A little warning first!”

Link readjusts and sits up now that Rhett is still. He is about to dismount when Rhett jerks a shoulder up, forcing Link to stay in place. “What, what’s wrong?”

Rhett growls. It’s a ominous sound that Link feels vibrate in his own chest. He has his head turned to the left, staring out into the distance. Without his glasses, Link can’t make out anything pass a few feet. “What’s happening?”

Rhett lets out a howl that has Link jumping out of his skin. He has a hand on his chest and relearning to breathe as the sound fills the night around them.

_Hold tight._

Link leans in, pressing into Rhett’s back and slipping his arms around his neck as far as they will go. This leaves him laying against the beast, feeling every shift of muscle beneath his own. He has two seconds to adjust to the strange sensations before Rhett is leaping over the fence and running.

“Where are you going?!”

The creative house was by no means in a secluded area. There was a house almost every four hundred feet from the last but there was a heavily wooded strip of land that went on for a few miles to the top of the hill. It was less than an acre of trees not yet bought up for housing development and surrounded by enough foliage it felt isolated. This is where Rhett stops.

With the world no longer rushing pass him, Link sits up and tries to take in his surroundings. All he can really make out are the blinking lights of stars and the dense shadows of trees.

“Where...what are we...” Link is stopped by a sound. Far off at first and faint. It slips through the trees and over the sounds of cars and running air conditioning units. Then it’s joined by another, and another, until it’s a distant but present chorus.

Rhett’s body grows tense beneath Link and he begins to stalk in the general direction. Link runs his fingers through a tuft Rhett’s fur near his shoulders. Whether to comfort himself or Rhett was up for debate. They pass a few more trees before Link hears the tumbling of rocks. They’ve reached a drop and can now look out over the edge. It wasn’t at all impressive, only twenty or so feet above the ground and overlooking the back of downtown Los Angeles.

Rhett howls but this time it’s abysmal and hollow. It melts into the air, harmonizing with chorus. It is at that exact moment Link understands. These sounds were other howls, all coming from different points in the city.

“How many of you are there?” Link whispers, his skin prickling all over.

* * *

The sky is blank, caught in the middle of sunrise and midnight. It’s hazy blue light leaking in through the glass doors. Link is reclining against Rhett, tucked between his front and back legs in a perfect seat of fur and warmth. After the howling, Rhett seems happier although Link couldn’t explain just how he knew that.

Regardless, they return to the house and raid the fridge. It was hilarious watching Rhett rip into cereal boxes and raw meat. Only after cleaning up to they sit quietly in the center of the living room.

“When do you turn back?”

Rhett makes a rumbling sound that Link feels all through out his back where their bodies touch.

“I like you as a wolf too. Just thinkin’ bout what I’m gonna tell Stevie or your wife. Stevie will probably not really care, maybe even try to make it a segment. Dunno about Jessie.”

Rhett lifts his head up and whines.

“Hush.” Link rubs the side of Rhett’s head. “We’ll figure it out. We always do.”


	4. Mother

Soft. Warm. Calm.

These are the immediate sensations that wash over Rhett as he opens his eyes. He lies on the ground, the feeling of damp earth coaxing him to sit up.

“Hello my son.” A voice, familiar and soothing, fills his senses. 

He turns his head to see a woman. She wears a sheer white gown that flutters delicately around her bare feet as she walks towards him. She has long black hair, flowing down her sides until her thighs, hiding the parts of her that would otherwise have been seen through the dress. Her skin is darker than the night sky above them but glows brighter than the moon present. Her eyes are completely white, no distinction between iris and sclera.

“Where am I?” 

“You’re home. All my children are connected to me through their dreams. But you already knew that, didn’t you?” She tilts her head, bringing her hands together, her claws quietly clicking as she does.

Rhett nods, thinks of the voice in the mirror. “Mother?” 

“Yes.” She smiles and her canines are massive, sharp, and shiny. 

“How?”

“You bested your sister but not before she passed her legacy, our legacy, onto you.”

“She was gonna kill Link!” Rhett stands up but the woman disappears. He is alone in a familiar forest, outside a familiar cabin.

“She was going to take those blue eyes, yes. But you know why, don’t you?” Her voice fills his head once more and he closes his eyes.

He feels it. The burning need, bursting through his lungs to take. To consume the power within. “What does that...what _is_ Link?”

“For once, I do not have an answer. Only that our kind craves his flesh like...”

“I’d never hurt Link!” Rhett opens his eyes and he’s sitting on the bed inside the cabin. Lying asleep, only centimeters away, is Link. He’s wearing Rhett’s pajamas, the same one Rhett wore that fateful night.

“You would not.” The woman is standing at the other side of the bed. She leans down, her hair pooling around Link in rivers of black. Her hand reaches out and caresses his face in a tender gesture. Despite her sharp appendages. “He is your mate.” 

“You mean...like my best friend?”

“I do not waste words. Your mark runs deep in him.” 

She takes one clawed finger and delicately drags it down Link’s throat until it reaches the collar of his shirt. There she plunges in, ripping the tshirt and continuing down until just beneath his rib cage. She takes either side of the now torn shirt, and pulls them apart, exposing Link’s chest. Where the skin should be pale with smattering of salt and pepper hair, there is a deep and dark purple bruise blooming from the sternum. It has the general shape of a wolf’s footprint, but significantly larger and with five digits. 

“I...don’t remember doing that.” Rhett reaches out to touch the skin but the woman's hand pushes him away.

“It is symbolic. We mark what is ours down into their very soul so that not even death can separate us.”

Rhett mulls this new information over for a moment and looks up into gleaming eyes “But I’m married to Jessie. We have two sons.”

“I did not determine this. Do you not remember the one thing you wanted with all your human heart as your sister bled upon you?”

Flashes of that night strike his mind's eye and he can feel everything. The fear, the exhaustion, the adrenaline, even the sweat dripping into his mouth and the hot spray of wolf's blood onto him. “I can’t let Link die.”

“And you will not. Not so long as you breathe.”

“ _But what about my wife?_ ”

“Take comfort in that wolves are not as lone as we are perceived. We may have more than one mate and our packs can grow to be as large as cities. But be certain, he is your mate.”. She straightens up, bringing her hands to rest in front of her, her hair still pooling around Link. The light from the window behind her casts her in shadow. Her white eyes the only thing visible. “You have another question my darling son. You may ask it.”

Rhett isn’t surprised she knows. As strange of a concept as a connected consciousness is, being a part of it just made sense. “Are the wolf and I... _separate_?”

“You know the answer.” She smiles again, even more teeth showing. “Now, awaken. Walk with your head held high for you are the newest son of Amara—First of the Burning Forests.”

* * *

Rhett wakes up naked and clammy. Ironically, he is the one mimicking a cephalopod. He and Link lay intertwined on the plush carpeting of the living room floor. Rhett’s legs on either side of Link’s hips and his arms cradling Link’s face to his chest. It’s pleasant, if a bit sweaty but Rhett knows he will be unable to face whatever panic attack Link has should he wake up any time soon.

Rhett gently pulls himself off Link, rolling away before standing up. He watches with baited breath as Link whimpers, curls inward and wraps his arms around himself. He continues sleeping. Rhett pretends he’s not disappointed and heads into his office where he’s sure to have some clothes to put on.

Rhett doesn’t tell Link about the whole _being mates_. Not that morning over breakfast at the Burger King drive-thru in his car. Or in between filming at work. Or a week later when he tells Link about Mother. He’s just not ready is what he tells himself. He also doesn’t tell his wife he’s a werewolf. Not yet. He asks that Link keep it a secret as well, for just a little longer. Let him get the hang of this he tells him.

“Of course Bo.” Link says. “I’ll take it to my grave if that’s what it takes.”


	5. More

So Link's life-long best friend and business partner was a werewolf. It makes Link smile every time he thinks about it. Even when he has to rush Rhett out of a board meeting to stop from exposing his claws and teeth. Or when Rhett shows up at his house in the middle of the night in his wolf form beckoning him to come along on a midnight run. It was such a far out concept, so fantastical that Link would ask himself to wake up but then he'd realize he was already awake. And there was Rhett, smiling at him, flashing his canines at him. 

"Hey!" Link slaps Rhett with the script he was supposed to be reading. "Stop starin' at me like I'm a piece of meat!”

"But you look so tasty." Rhett smirks, his voice a low growl. 

It’s a joke of course. According to Rhett’s wolfmother, as Link liked to think of her because no one could replace Mama Di, Rhett can eat whatever he wants. He doesn’t _need_ to eat human flesh or wild deer or whatever else they googled that wolves ate. 

"Shut up! Stop making it weird." Link goes to swing the rolled up paper again but Rhett catches his wrist in his much larger hand and tugs.

"What's so weird about me complimenting my very delicious looking cohost?" He leans in, his eyes shining brightly under the studio lights. 

They were supposed to be taking a fifteen minute break while the crew set up their next shot. They weren't alone by any means but everyone was too busy doing their own thing to notice. This was typical Rhett&Link behavior, they were always in each other's faces. So why did this feel so different to Link?

"Shut up." He says again with absolutely no heart behind it. Rhett is still smiling, still looking at him like slab of slow cooked ribs on the grill. As if at any second now, he’s going to lunge forward and take a bite out of Link. Unfortunately for Link, there existed a very small part of him that found the prospect enticing. “Let go of me.”

Rhett grins as he lets go of Link’s wrist only to grab the other. 

“Oh, so that’s how we’re playin’ this huh?” 

“I don’t know what your talkin’ bout.” Rhett tightens his hold on Link, slowly pulling him in, his rolling chair giving no resistance.

“You’re like a dog and his bone.” Link says just before Rhett’s knee touches the inside of his thigh.

“Interesting word choice. Any particular...”

“Uh....guys?” Dressed in a massive bubble suit, his arms held up by the inflated layers, is Chase. “We’ve been ready for a while now but you weren’t answering.”

“Sorry Chase, Link’s a huge distraction to anything productive.” Rhett stands up, pulling at Link’s wrist so that the shorter man would stand up too. He doesn’t let go right away, his thumb swiping the inside of Link’s wrist before he does.

“Well, the game’s all set up. Just need you guys.” Chase smiles, his eyes going between his two bosses. If he notices the strange energy, he doesn’t let on.

This goes on for weeks. Rhett becoming more and more tactile. A tug here, a pull there, a hand on the small of his back to lead him into a business meeting, a celebratory hug for winning a game. Nothing wildly out of place but every touch is so much more than just that. It may be the newfound heat that sears Link’s skin at every point of contact. It reminds Link of just small he was compared to both Rhett and the wolf he can become.

“Dad.” Lando’s voice cuts into Link’s thoughts.

“Yeah buddy?” Lando had accosted him at the front door when he arrived home. Something about helping with a school project but it was mostly Link folding paper while Lando did everything else.

“I’ve been having nightmares.” Lando’s normally soft voice was even softer, hesitant to share. He fidgets with the pair of scissors in his hands before realizing the danger in that and puts them down.

“About what?” Link folds the last sheet and pushes it away. He scoots his chair closer to his youngest son. Lando only nods his head.

Link takes a moment to really look at his son. He finds small, puffy bags under his normally vibrant eyes. The cheer in his cheeks just a little hollow and paler. Someone else may not notice but Link knew Lando was a little ball of sunshine and currently, he was looking a bit dim. “How long have you been havin’ them?”

Lando doesn’t answer right away but looks around them, leaning over to get a look down the hall. Link follows his eye line to try a figure out what he was searching for. “Buddy?”

Seemingly satisfied, Lando sits back and sinks into his seat. “You die.”

“Oh. That...that is a bit sad, does it make you sad?” Lando nods his head. “Do I die of old age or is it something scary?” Link remembers having nightmares almost his entire childhood. Most of which involved the death of loved ones. He would later come to understand that it was a part of his anxiety and learned to handle it better. Lando had always shown similar signs of anxiety and sensitivity which Link made sure to handle carefully.

“Rhett.”

“What?”

“Rhett eats you.”

“Ahaha!” Link doesn’t mean to laugh but it catches him off guard. “Does he pour ranch on me first or put me in his slow cooker?” He's hoping the humor will diffuse the unease but shiny blue eyes stare up at him.

“He turns into a giant wolf and tears you to shreds.”

“Oh.” There’s no stopping the sudden drop in Link’s stomach. He can practically hear Rhett screaming in his ear _what are the chances?!_

* * *

“Well, first of all, I’d never do that, yer too dang scrawny...”

“Rhett I’m serious. My eleven year old is dreamin’ about you an’ your little situation an’ I’m pullin’ my hair out tryna figure out how he knows.”

“Maybe he just saw me the night I came by. His squishy, young mind saw a big ol' wolf outside his window an' transposed the fear into somethin' real like losin' his father?"

"At no point did he mention ever seeing so much as a squirrel, let alone a giant wolf. And even if he did, _how does he know_ _it’s you?_ ”

The other end of the line goes silent. Link moves his cellphone away from his ear to check the time. It reads 11:15pm. He hopes he’s the only one awake in the house but sets off from his living room to his home office. He brings the phone back up to his ear as he shuts the door behind him. “I think we should start tellin’ people.”

“Link.”

“Just like our wives, kids...”

“Hey Lando, guess what? Your godfather _is_ a giant wolf that can swallow yer daddy whole. Ain’t that neat?”

“You think I’m overreacting.”

“Yes. Yes I do. If Lando had told you about this dream an’ I _wasn’t_ a werewolf, you wouldn't be freakin' out. You'd tell me about it, make a joke, and let it go."

“But you are a werewolf. And he’s been havin’ this nightmare on and off for months now _. Since that night in the cabin.”_

“Correlation not causation.”

“Says the werewolf.”

“Just..." Rhett sighs. "There's somethin' I'm still tryna come to terms with."

"What aren’t you tellin’ me?” Link fidgets. He was planning on staying at his desk but now stands.

“It’s...I’ll tell you in person, better that way but, but it ain’t bad. Just, a lot to take in.”

“Rhett, unless you’re tellin’ me that you got stage four butthole cancer, there’s not a lot that can top you becomin’ a friggin’ wolf.”

“Well Link, I’m afraid to tell ya...but I got stage four butthole...”

“Shut up man.” but Link’s laughing over Rhett’s snickering. “We shouldn’t be makin’ jokes about butthole cancer.”

“We?! You started it!”

“An’ I’m endin’ it. Whatever you need to come to terms with and tell me, cannot be that bad is all I’m saying.”

There’s no answer but he can hear Rhett letting out a long sigh. He imagines that, like himself, Rhett is in his pajamas. Sitting in his home office, fiddling with something on his desk before he decides on what to say next.

“You have to promise...promise you won’t hate me?”

“Hate you?” Link almost scoffs. “We wouldn’t have been friends this dang long if I could.”

* * *

Her name is Windy Quinn; a stage name to be sure. She’s a rising youtuber in her mid-twenties that does it all. Comedy, music, and flirting her ass off. She’s the guest for the day’s shoot and has the entire studio fawning over her. Makeup alone spends an extra thirty minutes redoing her lipstick because _every color is her color._

“I bet you keep all the best snacks on top of your refrigerator.” Is the first thing she says when she meets Rhett. She’s got a massive grin with perfect teeth and awestruck eyes staring up at him. He laughs loudly at the accusation and Link is reminded of the first time he met Jessie. She’s just as small, brunette, and just Rhett’s type.

Filming goes on longer than usual because of Windy’s constant barrage of sharp wit that has both hosts and crew laughing to the point of tears. Link can almost ignore the pangs of envy every time she compliments Rhett’s “pretty eyes” and “rosey cheeks”. But to be fair, she does point out that Link “is more beautiful than any woman she’s ever kissed”. This makes him blush so hard his face and shirt match shades of red. She’s positively dynamic and keeps up the energy straight into the More.

She’s also very tactile, constantly grabbing Rhett and getting up to play with the props on the set. At one point, she steals Link’s glasses right off his face and hides behind Rhett, forcing Link to reach over him and press up against him. He chooses to ignore the growl he hears and moves away, saying she can keep them.

When filming finally wraps, and she’s given Link back his glasses, she thanks them profusely. She asks for a chair to stand on and brings Rhett and Link into a group hug, kissing both men on the cheek. 

“Goodbye Daddies!” she calls out with glee before jumping down and running off, her high ponytail swishing madly behind her. Link watches her go, a swell of strange emotions swirling in his chest but most of them good. He goes to tell Rhett as such and finds the taller man boring holes into him.

“What’s the matter?”

“We need to talk.” Rhett’s eyes glow white and his jaw is set further out than normal. Something’s disturbed him enough to start transforming and he’s already heading towards their office.

“Are you okay?” Link whispers, quickly following behind.

He’s through the door for less than a second before his back is thrown up against the wall. The painting that hangs there falls off and onto the floor. Link has no concept of what’s happening as his feet struggle for purchase on the floor and there’s a hot, wet mouth pressed against his neck.

“What the fuck?!” Link yells, shoving his hands against Rhett’s shoulders to push him off but nothing comes of it as Rhett barely flinches. “Rhett, man, what...what are you doing?!” He keeps pushing as he feels a hand creep across his waist, slipping under his shirt, pulling his lower half against Rhett’s. “What’re you...what’re you..." He doesn’t finish the sentence because somehow Rhett’s found the spot on his collarbone that makes his knees give in and his throat involuntarily moan. 

“You taste as good as you smell.” The words melt over Link’s now tender skin. Rhett’s hands won’t stay in place, they roam up and down his sides with varying amounts of pressure. Nails turned claws dig in just enough to leave lines but not break skin. Link almost lets it all take him into wherever Rhett wants. Almost.

“Stevie.” Just as suddenly as he was thrust up against the wall, Link is let go of. He’s left stumbling to regain footing as the door to their office opens.

“Hey guys, I wanted to...” Stevie walks in like she has a million other times because unless otherwise notified, its an open door policy at Studio Mythical. Words leave her when she finds them almost immediately by the door. She assesses for a moment the charged energies around them. Rhett looks angry, an unhinged look in his eyes and his hair is a mess. Link looks confused with his shirt half up, exposing his stomach. She knows what it looks like but she knows it could be something else. “Am I... _interrupting something?_ ”

“Yes.”

“No.” 

They answer simultaneously then glare at one another as Link pulls his shirt down. “No Stevie, of course not. What is it you need?”

“You sure? I could walk out and come back in and we can act like...” she gestures wide with both hands, “whatever this was never happened.”

“Or you could just leave.”

“ _Rhett_.” Link warns.

“You know what, that’s a great idea. It wasn’t even that important.” Stevie turns around to head out but is stopped by a gentle hand on her arm.

“I’m sorry Stevie, Rhett’s being a jackass because... well he’s a jackass. We can go over whatever it is in like...ten minutes? I'm gonna have a talk with the big guy, suss out what’s got him all...cranky."

She spares a glance over to Rhett who offers a weak grin but the tension is gone from his face. Something was going on but it wasn’t her business. Yet. “Okay, meet me in my office in ten.” She turns away to go through the door. As soon as she’s taken enough steps away, Link shuts the door and makes certain it’s locked. 

“What the fuck is wrong with you?!” Link shouts as he turns back to Rhett. Long ago they’d gotten their office soundproof and he was ready to put it to the test.

Rhett flinches and refuses to make eye contact. He mumbles something that’s impossible for Link to hear.

“What did you say?”

“I said, you liked it.”

“I _what?!_ Rhett you _assaulted me and you...”_

_“_ I can smell it.” Rhett takes a few steps closer to Link. “Or sense it. I don't know the how but I do know you like it when I touch you. Or when I get close enough to touch you. You like it when I lower my voice. You can’t keep your eyes off me when I wear tight shirts. You _don’t_ _like_ when someone else flirts with me.” With every statement, a flush of color creeps up from beneath Link’s collar up until his ears.

Link was fifteen years old the first time he ever thought about kissing Rhett. Something about the light catching in his eyes and the way he was smiling at Link made him think, what if? It was a thought that persisted throughout their entire adolescence into college until they met their wives. Not once had he ever acted on it. It was put to rest inside a box with lid in the back of his mind, on a shelf far, far, far away from the light of day. And Rhett’s just found it and torn it open in the middle of their office.

“Rhett...this isn’t, this isn’t some trashy romance novel.” Link swallows the lump forming in his throat. "You can't just _suddenly_ confess your sexual desires for me an' I just let you have your way wit me." Link's southern accent comes pouring out of him and he hates himself for it.

“I...this isn’t how I wanted to tell you. But today, with Windy? She just kept touchin’ ya an’ sayin’ how beautiful you are an’...” Rhett stops himself from outright growling by shoving his fist into his mouth.

"Was _this_ what you were talkin' bout last night? What you wanted to tell me in person? _Jesus Christ Rhett!_ " Link rubs a hand down his face before almost whispering. "We have families."

“I know.” Rhett says after removing the fist in his mouth. He moves in a bit closer. Link moves back but finds himself bumping into the wall.

“I can’t...” Link brings up his hands to create a space between himself and Rhett but all he really does is lay them gently across the taller's man chest. He can feel Rhett's heart beating through his shirt. He revels in the warmth underneath the fabric as he spreads his fingers apart. He stares at his fingernails, willing away this moment.

"You're my mate." Rhett's hands come up to either side of Link's face and rest there, cradling his head as he leans in. "I...I...it wasn't intentional I promise but now, even if you don't...can't love me back..."

"Of course I love you, ya jerk." Link looks up to find Rhett's eyes shining bright white but no other signs of turning full wolf. “I...this is just... _what does this mean_?”

"You're my mate." Rhett repeats. "That means you're a part of my pack. I’ll always be here to protect you and I will follow you into death."

"Jesus." Link gasps.

Emotionally, all Link wants to do is close the distance between their mouths and forget about every single thing except Rhett. Logically, he's contemplating every single scenario where this ends in heartache for more than just the two of them. He parts his lip to say as much. To argue one last point before they do something that will change everything but Rhett stops him. He stops him by pressing his lips against his in a muted urgency that has Link pressing back almost immediately.

This was nothing like the wedding musical kiss where he was a tangle of confusion and plexiglass. Or the time they kissed via Stevie’s gloved hands. This was years of wanting to know what it would feel like to love and be loved by his best friend in the exact same way he had only imagined in his dreams and finally getting the answer. 

All Link could think was _more_.


	6. In n Out

“Rhett, what...what’re we doin’?” Link’s a little breathless and just a little giddy. Swollen lips smiling as he looks up into Rhett’s glowing eyes. He threads his fingers through soft, waxy curls on either side of Rhett’s head. He pauses to admire his ears which are larger and pointer. Link assumed the night of the wolf attack was the scariest moment in his life but here and now he knew this was far more frightening. 

“Incurring the wrath of Stevie.” Rhett mumbles, his nose bumping into Link’s. He presses a soft kiss against Link’s lips, tracing the bottom one with his tongue. A request easily acquiesced by the parting of Link’s lips. Tongues meet and tangle until air becomes scarce.

“She’s gonna kill us.” Link exhales. He allows himself to be enveloped in the unwavering heat that is Rhett. Hands travel up from his waist to his shoulder blades where claws dig in but do not harm. When Link feels the hard line of Rhett’s thigh against his hip, he moves just enough to let Rhett’s leg slip in-between his. As a reward he’s pushed up against the wall, his feet leaving the ground. Link gasps and clutches the back of Rhett’s neck for support. For that he gets a growl to the nape of his neck so guttural he feels it in his marrow. Link is just about to lose the last dredges of logic and understanding before he whimpers. “Rhett, we should...we should talk about this.”

“We should.” Teeth far too keen scrape against Link’s throat through the words followed swiftly by a hot tongue.

“ _Fuck_.”

“We could do that.” Rhett chuckles, mouth moving down onto Link's shoulder, depositing a line of precious little bites through the cotton of his shirt.

“Rhett, we...” Link slowly slides his hands back, the motion stilling Rhett, until he’s cradling the other man’s face. “We can’t do this. Not now...”

“I know.” Rhett sighs, shutting his eyes and placing his forehead against Link’s. His hair falls like a curtain on either side of their faces and Link tries not to giggle from being tickled by it. “I just... _I want_ _you_ _so bad_.”

“I...I...but...”

“Stevie.” Rhett leans back, opening his eyes. “She’s gonna kill us.”

“Yeah... _Stevie_.” 

Link's thumbs rub small circles against Rhett's cheeks until they reach the fragile skin beneath his eyes. He watches awestruck as the color returns to Rhett’s irises and pupils. The white fading into greys and greens. It was like watching the ground come into view from an airplane window, the clouds opening up to show you the place you call home.

“Five more minutes.” Rhett pleads quietly.

So they give themselves five more minutes. Five more minutes to kiss and touch and breathe in each other’s scents. And to fix their hair and adjust their shirts and stare into each other’s eyes with giant smiles plastered on their faces.

When they finally head over to their CCO, Stevie is waiting for them with a look of mild irritation. She pointedly explains some finer details for an upcoming project, brings up several ongoing issues, and makes them sign about seven different pieces of paperwork. She also only asks them once if everything between them is alright which they answer simultaneously with.

“We’re still good.”

She eyes them suspiciously but dismisses them as everyone is running late for lunch, themselves included. Rhett suggests In n Out and Link agrees easily. They say or do nothing out of the ordinary as they walk outside the building, head for Rhett’s car, and drive the two minutes straight into the drive-thru. Link gets his usual and Rhett gets his usual times five stating. “I worked up a crazy appetite thanks to...” but doesn’t finish because his cheeks go pink and the intercom beckons him to drive up. After paying and receiving their orders Rhett drives to the furthest empty spot under a tree and parks.

Rhett is halfway done with a burger before Link even unwraps his. The image alone is enough to make him laugh which catches Rhett’s attention. Not enough to stop eating but enough to make eye contact and now Link’s the one blushing.

“So, uh, we should...we should talk.” Link fumbles his words as he picks at his food. Rhett makes a noise of agreement as he finishes up his second burger.

“Yeah.” He wipes at his beard with the bright yellow paper napkin before crumbling it and chucking it into one of the empty bags.

“Was it like...a one time thing?”

“No.” Rhett is answering before Link is even done with the question. “Unless, unless you...” he trails off, not confident in being able to finish. He adjusts himself, putting down the bag of food on the console between them.

“I...uh...” Link has an overwhelming amount of words bubbling up to the surface. He stares at the half eaten burger in his hands to try and decipher some of them. “I don’t want it to be a one time thing.”

“Me neither.”

“But we’re married. To other people. Two women in fact so, uh, we....we should sort this out.”

“I still love Jessie. I just...I just know I love you too. And maybe, maybe I’ve always been in love with you I just...”

“Needed to become a fictional creature to help ya come to terms with it?” Link offers.

“Yeah.” Rhett nods. He’s still hungry but the knots forming in his stomach would not allow for a properly digested meal if he tried.

“Well, I still love Christy an’ things between us are just fine. I just, I wouldn’t mind if you and I, did something more than what we’ve been doin’ for years.”

“So then, we tell them.” Rhett taps the steering wheel in a small gesture of affirmation.

“Simple as that?”

“Simple as that.” Rhett nods.

“One week then. We can...we can see if this wasn’t a fluke. See if we both still want this. And then we tell ‘em and maybe we can figure somethin' out amongst the four of us...whatever that may be.”

“One week?”

“Too long?”

“I don’t know? I still haven’t told Jessie about being a werewolf.”

“Well whaddya waitin’ for? _A full moon?_ ”

“Real funny Neal. I’m gonna shatter that woman’s entire concept of reality. Hey baby, I’m a werewolf _AND_ I’m sleepin’ with Link, my best friend who just so happens to be a dude! Can we make this work b’cause I love ya so dang much. Promise I won’t bite!”

“Now hold on, you ain’t sleepin’ with me just yet!”

“But you admit there’s a yet!” Rhett looks very pleased as Link is instantly quieted. “It’s a lot man. What if I scare her? What if she just takes the kids and leaves me?”

“Because you’re a werewolf or b’cause of me?”

“Both?”

“It is a lot, certainly. But we’re _way_ too old to be sneakin’ around.”

“So what do you suggest?”

“Logically, we should just stop. Go back to how things were and chalk it up to some wolf hormones or somethin’.”

“You tellin’ me you ain’t feel what I was feelin’ back there? B’cause I can tell you right now...”

“That’s not what I was sayin!”

_They were fifteen. It was summer before senior year and Link had a day off from working the tobacco field. They’d spent the day at the river. Swimming, running, fishing, and slurping down Mello Yellos like they’d be banned from the county._

_They were both shirtless, sitting only centimeters apart with the heat from Rhett’s arm radiating onto Link’s shoulder. He turned his head to say something and that’s when he sees Rhett is already looking at him with a tiny smile on his face. The sun shining down on him in such a way that all the light catches across the right side of his face, casting the left in shadow. It takes Link by surprise. He’d seen Rhett’s face one hundred times before but in that moment it was like looking into a stained glass, fractals of light and dark coming together into a beautiful green eyed visage. Link forgets everything he was going to say and simply smiles back. His eyes wander to Rhett’s impossibly small mouth and wonders if his lips would taste like._

_“Bo?”_

_“Yeah.”_

_“You didn’t finish what you was sayin’.”_

_“Oh, I...” Link blushes, bringing his arms up and around himself. “It’s nothin’."_

_“Ya sure?” Rhett leans in with an aborted motion of his hand reaching out to touch Link pulled back when their eyes meet once more. What neither boy realizes is that they’re both thinking the exact same thing._

“I’m sayin’, I don’t know what we’re supposed to do.” Link throws his head back against his seat, rubbing his eyes under his glasses. “I just want you to kiss me and make me forget how guilty it makes me feel.”

“I can do that.”

“That solves nothing.” Link turns his head to look at Rhett and finds his face centimeters from his own. A day ago, he would have shoved Rhett away. But right now? He only smiles. “What’re you lookin’ at?”

“You.” Rhett almost whispers. “I’m always lookin' atcha.”

“Shut up man.” Link wants to turn away but there’s a hand that reaches out and holds his face in place.

“We can figure it out. You said so yourself.”

“That was about being a wolf. Not this.” Link’s hand comes up to remove Rhett’s but he only brings it back onto Link’s cheek.

“One week. One week to figure out how we tell Jessie and Christy. And we’ll deal with the fallout like we deal with everything else. Together.”

“The fallout? D’you hear yourself?”

“I’m just as scared as you but the difference between you an' me is I have hope.”

“I think what you have is buckets of crazy.”

“A few, sure.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I originally meant to finish this is seven chapters but I've recently had to update that to at least 9. Buckle up Beasties!


	7. One Week

“I want a divorce.” Christy says calmly. She takes a rather large sip of white wine from her glass before gently placing it back down on the table.

“ _What_?” Is all Link can manage after choking back a piece of roast beef.

“Let’s not act like we don’t know what’s happenin’ here. You got yer best friend, I got mine with the kids nowhere in sight. Charles Lincoln Neal the Third, I know you’ve been steppin’ out on me an’ I’ve known for a while. I want an amicable and tidy divorce but know I’ll never forgive you.”

* * *

_Seven Days Left_

“Hey.”

“Hey yourself.” Link looks up from his phone to find Rhett standing nearby. He’s in the middle of stretching his arms high above his head.

“You know what I can’t stop thinkin’ about?”

“What’s that?” Link turns in his seat to better face Rhett. His arm is outstretched over his head as he arches to one side then the other. It’s an exercise Link has seen him do a million mornings before but this is the first time he allows himself to watch.

Rhett had always been a beanpole. He hit the growth part of growth-spurt harder than any other boy in Buies Creek and hadn’t stopped until well pass the age it should’ve. But with his lupine transfiguration he’d become more muscular. Filling out the arms and chest of even his biggest shirts. He seemed less like a bean pole and more of a mountain with hills and valleys cut along his biceps and triceps, deltoids and...

“Kissin’ you.” Rhett says with a smile, finishing up the last stretch.

“That does sound nice.” Link's eyes never leave Rhett as he takes the seat next to him. "Maybe later, when we’re not surrounded by our employees?”

“What if I said you had somethin' in your hair?”

“I what?” Link reaches a hand up towards his head but Rhett intercepts the movement with his own. His fingers brush against Link’s temple before slipping pass his hairline. This allows Rhett to move in closer but fully block Link from the cameras set in front of them. “You’re so obvious man.” Link mutters, relishing the feeling of blunt nails across his scalp.

“Am I?” Rhett’s hand slowly pulls away feigning something in between his index finger and thumb. “I think I’m doing a pretty good job of...”

“Hey guys, why are your mics off?” Morgan bursts the metaphorical bubble around them. He’s standing by the sound board behind camera one. He’s not even looking, focused instead on the levels on the screen in front of him.

“My fault!” Rhett calls back, moving away from Link and reaching for his mic pack.

“When did you do that?” Link whispers, reaching for his own pack and switching it back on.

“Sometime before you noticed I was even here.” 

* * *

_Five Days Left_

“So I noticed something back there.”

“That they’re absolute asshats for lowballin' us like that? I mean, I get it, we’re youtubers but...”

“Yeah, no definitely lowballin’ us but you didn’t wolf out. Even now when you’re clearly still upset about it.”

“Oh. Oh yeah!” Rhett looks at his hand and searches for any little sign of a transformation but finds none. “I’ve been meditatin’ with Amara an’ learnin’ how to control myself better.”

“That’s great.” Link pats Rhett’s back as they walk through the door of their office. They had about twenty minutes before their next meeting and Link wanted nothing more in the world than the cookies sitting on his desk. They were baked the night before by his daughter and left as a surprise in his backpack that morning.

“It’s harder when I’m around you.”

“Oh?” Link stops halfway to his desk and turns back to face Rhett. He’s leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed over his chest. “Well, how come?”

“It’s...it’s hard to explain. Just, I’m doin’ my best an’ I’d never hurt ya.” Rhett puts his head down and walks over to his own desk.

"No wait.” Link grabs Rhett’s arm just as he passes him. “Hurt me? You thinkin’ bout hurtin’ me?”

“No, not...” Rhett lets out a long sigh, closing his eyes. Link’s hand is still on his arm but now he’s rubbing small circles. “Sometimes I get these urges and they’re _really_ hard to control.”

“Urges? What kind of urges?” Link’s voice is small, full of curiosity and maybe a little bit of fear.

“Like throwin’ you onto the nearest available surface an’ havin’ my way with you.”

“Oh, _those_ kind of urges.” Link is smiling despite the red creeping all along his face and neck. “Well, I can’t say...”

“Stop. We haven’t told the girls yet an’ I’d rather not indulge in something I might never have again.”

Link closes the space between, his free hand falling onto Rhett’s chest. “You make it all sounds so harlequin.”

“Can I kiss you?”

“Of course.”

* * *

_Three Days Left_

“Hello Mrs. McLaughlin.”

“Hello Marcus, you know you can call me Jessie.”

“Jessie! Yes. Haha. Sorry, I promise I won’t be long. I just wanted to ask if you’ve seen any coyotes around?”

“Coyotes?”

“Yes ma’am. You see, a part of neighborhood watch here is keeping an eye on the wildlife that comes in. We’ve lost many a pet cat and small dog to coyotes that venture just a little too close.”

“Oh my. No, not at all. I mean, our Barbara don’t really leave our side.”

“That’s good. Any property damage? Like trampled flower beds or dug up holes under fences?”

“No, none of that fortunately.”

“Okay, well you’ve been awfully helpful.”

“‘Course. Send my hello to ya mama when ya see her.”

“You got it!”

Jessie waves her hand as she watches the young man climb the stairs down from her front door.

“Was that Clark? The lil neighborhood watch kid?”

“It was. He says we might have a coyote problem.”

“You know what, we might just. Been finding lots of holes and kicked up turf in our back yard.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah. Told Link about it and of course he got all fidgety and nervous about it. He’s just been _so_ suspicious lately about every little thing.”

“Christy, you know that man is just an anal...”

“I think he’s cheatin’ on me.”

“Christy!” Jessie almost laughs assuming it’s a joke but the look on the blonde’s face stops her. “You aren’t serious?”

“I am. That’s actually why I asked to come over. I needed to talk to you about it.” Christy fidgets, wringing her hands together. Jessie takes that as her cue to lead the taller woman by the elbow to the couch. She lets her sit down first then sits beside her, tucking her legs underneath herself.

“Well, what’s got you thinkin’ like this?”

“He’s been missin’ from bed.” Christy sighs. “At first I thought he was with Lando. You know b’cause he’s been havin’ all those nightmares I told you about.” Jessie nods her head. “But then one night I caught him comin’ in through the kitchen door. It was two in the mornin’ an’ he was feedin’ me some line about fresh air but he’d be gone for hours an’ he wasn’t in his pajamas. Had shoes on an’ everythin’. You know that man doesn’t believe in footwear unless absolutely needed.’”

Again, Jessie is nodding her head. She reaches out and places her hand over Christy’s. “I feel like there’s more to this but you just take your time.”

“He has scratches on his back.” Jessie’s eyes grow to the size of dinner plates. “See, he’s been disappearin’ in the middle of the night for months now but the other night? He’d gotten out the shower and I saw them.” Christy closes her eyes and leans a little forward before continuing. “They’re these faint, tiny lines just running up and down his back.” She motions with her hands, fingers spread in a pantomime of dragging nails down an invisible back. 

“Oh honey.” Jessie’s arms are wrapped around Christy before she can bring her own down.

* * *

_One Day Left_

"Your hands aren't as sweaty as I remember."

"That's b'cause your hands are always so cold." Rhett brings Link's hand up to his lips and presses a kiss between Link's first and second knuckle. "Keeps mine cool'."

"Oh." Their eyes meet for a moment and they wear matching grins. Somewhere a car drives pass, working the horn and the moment ends. They take the last few steps to their cars.

Rhett reluctantly lets go of Link's hand and immediately shoves it into his jacket pocket in search of his car keys. “I found this slow roast recipe that involves some whiskey and I was thinkin’ I can make like a rosewater...what’s so funny?” Rhett stops as Link turns away from him laughing.

"Nothin', it's just real cute your obsession with feedin' people."

"Is it an obsession? I like to think I just enjoy makin' mouths happy.”

" _Mouths happy_? Isn’t that Twizzlers’ slogan?" Link laughs a little louder. He doesn’t want to leave, this was their last day before _the conversation._ That’s what Link has been mentally referencing to the impeding confessional with their wives. He’d gladly stand in between their cars in the empty Mythical parking lot forever if it meant he got to stand with Rhett.

"Can I kiss you?"

"Wha...Yes of course." Link smiles, thrown off by the sudden change in tone of Rhett's voice. He steps closer only to be pushed back by the taller man, up against his own car. Rhett’s lips find his as his hands wind around Link’s jawline, tenderly holding him in place with no semblance of letting go. So he wasn’t the only one hoping tomorrow would keep longer.

"I can’t choose.”

"Huh?" Link mumbles, not quite out of the haze of kissing. Rhett is still holding onto his face, leaning down so their eyes can lock. It’s then that Link feels the quiet tremor in Rhett’s body. “What’re you talkin’ bout?”

“If Jessie makes me choose, between you or her, I don’t...I _can’t._ I just can’t.”

"I..." Link doesn't have an response. The concept of a life without Rhett is so foreign that it just doesn’t compute. Christy is the love of his life, the mother of his children, the woman who supported him in every crazy, stupid endeavor he and Rhett ever cooked up. The two had always existed in tandem, the conept of choosing...

"Link?" Rhett is looking at him with a pleading in his eyes that Link is compelled to answer.

"We’ll just tell them that."

“Tell ‘em what?”

“We can’t choose.” Link brings a hand up and over Rhett’s. “It’s gonna be hard but we’re in this together and have been for a while.” He smiles, watches for the subtle shifts in Rhett’s expression.

“Wow, you sound almost inspirational Neal.”

“Yeah well, one of us is too busy makin’ slow roast rosewater.”

* * *

“I want a divorce.” Christy says calmly. She takes a rather large sip of white wine from her glass before gently placing it back down on the table.

“ _What_?” Is all Link can manage after choking back a piece of roast beef.

“Let’s not act like we don’t know what’s happenin’ here. You got yer best friend, I got mine with the kids nowhere in sight. Charles Lincoln Neal the Third, I know you’ve been steppin’ out on me an’ I’ve known for a while. I want an amicable and tidy divorce but know I’ll never forgive you.”

Christy’s words are calculated but not unkind. They denote just how long she’s actually been thinking about this moment. Now, sat here with the closest adults in her life she just wanted to get it over with. She was hurt but she was more relieved to finally have reached this point.

“That’s...not everything.” Link puts his fork down and looks across the table where Rhett is already staring back at him. Rhett nods his head and clears his throat but just as he’s about to speak, Jessie cuts in. 

“Rhett’s the one you’re sleeping with, isn’t it?” Three sets of eyes bulge and stare at the shortest woman in the room. “I uh, I have had my suspicions ‘bout Rhett cheatin’ as well.” She’s only looking at Christy. “I was too scared to really sit down and put two an’ two together but then you told me ‘bout Link an’ I...I didn’t want to insinuate anythin’ while you were cryin’ yer eyes out.

“It ain't even another woman!?” Christy yells but immediately slaps a hand across her mouth. She told herself she wouldn’t lose it but she was certainly not expecting this.

“There’s more to...” Rhett attempts to speak but is cut off by his wife once more.

“ _More to it?_ Ya’ll been best friends since damn near birth an’ now ya'll sleepin' together an’ you’re tellin’ us...”

“We haven’t actually slept with each other...” Link attempts to say but Jessie continues speaking over him.

“ _There’s more to it?!_ I suspect you’re gonna say somethin' to the effect of _‘It was always s’posed to be Rhett and Link’.”_ Jessie’s face is pink with frustration. Unlike Christy, she had no plan. She just felt an overwhelming amount of emotions rushing through her all at once and was going to voice them as they came. And just maybe, she drank that last glass of wine a little too fast.

“There’s more to it than just that. I’m...”

“I’m gonna need more wine for this.” Christy reaches across the dining table to grab the bottle but Link’s hand stops her.

“Now hold on’.” He attempts to cover her hand with his but Christy snatches it away as if she’d been burn, leaving Link’s hand hovering over the table. He wraps it around the bottle as an afterthought.

“Ya’ll are gonna have to let me finish b’cause what I’m about to say next is gonna be real out there but ties in with....”

“Your infidelity?” Jessie offers. She makes a sudden lunge across the table and snags the bottle from Link’s grasp, leaving him gobsmacked.

“Yes.” Rhett clenches his jaws. “Remember that camping trip me an’ Link took a while back?”

“The one to get your creative juices flowin’?” Christy snorts, holding out her empty glass to Jessie. She pours her a full glass before taking a sip directly from the bottle herself.

“Yes. Well, that second night something happened to...to me specifically but...”

“Rhett’s a werewolf.” Link says abruptly.

“ _A whute_?” Christy’s southern accent peaks.

“A werewolf.”

“Oh for fuck’s sake, I’m leavin’.” Jessie stands up. She looks at the almost empty bottle and grabs the unopened one closer to the center of the table before stomping out of the dining room.

“Wait for me!” Christy calls out. “The two of y’all are disgustin’ an’ not cause ya’ll take it up the ass but b’cause you’re not decent enough to...” Christy stops when she looks over at Rhett.

At some point between Jessie leaving and Christy standing, he left his spot at the table and walked over to the other side of the room. He looks taller somehow until he’s leaning forward, his arms reaching out like he’s falling in slow motion. He catches himself, landing on all fours, his back arched up, fingers splayed as far apart as possible.

“What the fuck?” Christy stares as Rhett grows larger, his form falling into shadow because he now blocks one of overhead lights. Fur replaces skin, claws replace nails, his face blurs from man into beast until Christy was staring up into the eyes of complete white. “ _Jesus_.”

“It’s still Rhett...he can’t really talk...in this form.” Link tries to get his wife’s attention, slowly walking over so that he could stand between her and Rhett.

“JESSIE GET BACK IN HERE SO I KNOW I HAVEN'T BEEN DRUGGED!” Christy shouts, her eyes locked onto Rhett’s.

In seconds, the click clack of four inch heels round the corner back into the dining room. Jessie is still holding the wine bottle but now has her purse and car keys in the other hand.

“What’s goin’ on...OH MY GOD!!!” Jessie stumbles back a bit, dropping the wine with a dull thud on the floor near her feet. “ _WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?_!” Her hand latches onto Christy’s forearm and practically drags her back.

“It’s just Rhett, he’d never hurt anyone in this room. Well, he might hurt me cause our jobs are doin’ stupid stuff on the internet but even then it wouldn’t be intentional.” Link has his arm out and motions for Rhett to move back while approaching the trembling women. Rhett huffs but awkwardly backs into a corner and sits on his hindlegs before laying on his stomach, his head now level with Link’s hips. “We were ambushed that night, right outside the cabin. You should’ve seen Rhett swoopin’ in an’ savin’ my life like some dang action hero.”

Jessie isn’t listening to a single word, staring directly at Rhett’s sulking wolf form. "Chris, you seein’ this?"

"I wish I wasn't."

"If I peed myself...."

"I wouldn't judge you babe b'cause I may have peed myself too."

"Christy, Jessie, please, it's okay I promise...."

"Hush." Jessie points an accusatory finger at Link. "We are processing this."

Rhett whimpers. Link gives the women a final glance before walking over to him and kneeling beside him. “It’s okay man. Give ‘em a chance, they haven’t left screamin’ yet.” Link runs a hand over the top of Rhett’s hair, making sure to scratch just above his left ear.

"I ain't scared." Christy says. The tension in her shoulders eases a bit and her posture relaxes. She still holds on tightly to Jessie's hand.

"Good, ‘cause I'm scared plenty for the both of us." Jessie side steps closer to Christy to press their sides together.

"No, I mean, think about it Jess. If, if this is really happenin', wouldn't we have been mauled or eaten by now?"

"Yeah but maybe..."

"An' don't it just look like Rhett? Bug eyes, long snout, even the hair color is like Rhett's."

Jessie looks from the wolf to Christy and back. " _What_?"

"We ain't dead yet an’ look at Link. You think he'd be _that_ calm?" Christy points to her husband who keeps a hand on Rhett’s head but offers an awkward smile at them.

"Wait, you think he's fuckin’ a wolf?"

"I'm not imagin’ _that_!”

"Well I am." Jessie giggles. It's a quick burst of laughter. It catches her off guard as well as Christy. They lock eyes and both women start laughing in earnest. It's a laughing fit that can only be had by two women who have just found out their husbands of twenty years were romantically involved with one another and one of them was also a giant wolf. Rhett makes a small yipping noise in annoyance and they laugh even louder.

* * *

“So it’s not a wolf thing?”

“Whaddya talkin' bout?”

“Bein' in love with Link. It really is you, always has been.”

“If you knew the answer, why didya ask?” Rhett grumbles.

“I like to be validated out loud.” Jessis smirks, taking a long sip from her can of coke. After the initial shock of it all, the couples sat down on the living room couch and discussed everything at an excruciating length. Now she and Rhett sat at the edge of the pool outside. “I always knew. It wasn’t that obvious when we started datin’. Maybe it was, but I was too busy fallin' for the tallest fella I'd ever seen. An' it wasn’t even that obvious when we moved out here all those years ago. But it was _definitely_ there. I was always gonna play second fiddle to him.”

“Jessie...”

“No, now I ain’t sayin' this for pity’s sake. I’m sayin' you have such a big heart, you went an' fell in love twice. It just took turning into a big ol’ dog for you to realize with who first.”

“I feel like I should be offended.”

Jessie snorts, dribbling some of her soda from her mouth onto her chin. She giggles. She wasn’t drunk but she felt intoxicated by the events of the evening. “You should dammnit!” She pushes into Rhett’s side and giggles into his arm.

* * *

“When you kiss me, you ever imagine it’s Rhett instead of me?” Christy is looking out the patio doors. Her eyes are trained on the backs of Rhett and Jessie. Their body language cozy.

“What?!” Link stops mid scrub of a pot in the sink and turns to face Christy.

“Be honest now. I don’t want anymore secrets.” She says without turning to look at him.

“Christy, never. I love you and when I’m with you, you’re the only one I’m thinking of.”

“But sometimes when you’re smiling, you ain’t smiling cause I said something funny.”

“What...”

“Sometimes you come home an’ it’s like you’re walkin’ on air an’ you won’t stop lookin’ goofy an’ it got nothin’ ta do with me. It’s him.” Christy turns, throwing a thumb over her shoulder.

“I...yes.”

“S’not bad. I ain’t jealous...well no that’s a lie. I’m...at odds b’cause I knew the day you introduced me to Rhett all those years ago I was gonna have to share you with him. It just took us about thirty years to figure out the logistics.”

“And werewolves.”

“That too.” Christy nudges Link’s arm with her shoulder. She drank all her coke already and the night had gone nothing like what she expected but maybe that wasn’t so bad? She opens the fridge for another soda. “Now we gotta figure out how we’re gonna tell the kids.”

**Author's Note:**

> based on that cool magnetic poem posted by @shminsington on twitter


End file.
